Free Legend of Michael by Lisa Renée Jones Page A

her—of asking that same question that day at Groom Lake.
    He arched a brow. “No ‘how are you?’ ‘Happy New Year?’ No hug for Dad?”
    “I’d prefer skipping the part where we pretend everything is okay,” she said. “We both know you didn’t come to Germany to wish me a happy New Year.”
    He offered her a file. She ignored it, didn’t want it.
    “Take it, Cassandra,” he said.
    Her lips thinned. “Whatever you’re up to now, Father, I want no part of it.”
    “Adam’s Zodius Army has been attacking our naval bases,” he said. “They claimed a New Mexico base and another in Texas. Men are dying. Good men. And you can help prevent that. Take the file, Cassandra.”
    She didn’t want to hear this. She didn’t want to know this. But… now she did, now she couldn’t pretend she didn’t know. She took the file, her gaze flickering over the label “Red Dart” and underneath that “PMI Research,” then back to him. “What is ‘Red Dart,’ and who is this PMI?”
    “PMI is my private company, and Red Dart is a tracking device we’ve developed that will allow us to tag the Zodius during attacks, like we do animals in the wild. It enters the bloodstream and becomes permanent. It then alerts us to their approach. This program will allow us to save lives and capture the enemy.”
    “I still don’t see what this has to do with me.”
    “I’ve got a meeting in Washington on Monday morning, and I’ve asked Caleb Rain to attend as the leader of the GTECH Renegades. I’d like you to be there as well.”
    She handed him back the file. “That’s not going to happen.”
    He leaned forward and took her hand. “My daughter, the angel of my eye,” he said, his voice rough with emotion, “I have made mistakes. I hurt you. I know this. But I swear to you that everything I did was meant to protect the country I love and the daughter I worship. I knew what Michael was—I knew he was using you.”
    Hatred laced his voice, and Cassandra couldn’t blame him for that. Michael had tried to kill him, though knowing her father, the embarrassment of Michael making him look a fool was probably more like it. Michael—a man who’d stolen her heart, had almost ripped it out. Pain knifed through Cassandra, and she squeezed her eyes shut. Every passing day, every day that he didn’t appear, reminded her that he was Zodius, no matter how much she didn’t want to believe it to be true.
    “I have to fix the tragedy that Project Zodius has become,” her father continued, squeezing her hand and willing her to look at him.
    Cassandra opened her eyes, stared into the desperate plea in her father’s face, so out-of-character, and felt her insides unraveling, felt him tugging her into his world again.
    “Adam’s Zodius Nation is nothing short of a cult,” he said. “Some of those GTECH soldiers following Zodius can be saved. If anyone can make that happen once we have them in custody, it’s you.” He squeezed her hand again. “Stand by my side, daughter. Show the world you believe in me, and I will not fail you or them.”
    ***
    “In the six months since Powell’s return to duty, I’ve been hearing these claims that he can control the GTECHs with Red Dart. And I’ve looked over the data Lucian collected from his White House informant with some excitement. However, there is absolutely nothing here that allows me to create the Red Dart program. Certainly nothing that even remotely indicates it works on GTECHs. In fact, just the opposite. The research shows Red Dart is destroyed by the GTECH immune system.”
    The announcement, made by Dr. Edward Reed, the frail, fifty-something scientist, displeased Adam. In fact, he was so fucking not pleased, he couldn’t decide if he wanted to reach across the desk and wring Reed’s scrawny little neck or turn around and grab Lucian Brody—the Zodius soldier who’d made this White House contact—and pull his balls through his throat. He grabbed Reed’s laptop from